]]>Jamaican Women’s Bobsleigh Team Finish 19th At Winter Olympicshttp://www.puertoricotribune.com/jamaican-womens-bobsleigh-team-finish-19th-at-winter-olympics/
Thu, 22 Feb 2018 00:02:29 +0000http://www.puertoricotribune.com/jamaican-womens-bobsleigh-team-finish-19th-at-winter-olympics/News Americas, MIAMI, FL, Thurs. Feb. 22, 2018: Congratulations were pouring in on social media Wednesday afternoon for the Jamaica women’s bobsled team, even though they finished second to last at the Winter Olympics in South Korea.

“History makers” and “inspiration” are just some of the adjectives being used to describe the team of Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian and brake woman Carrie Russell who finished 19th overall, ahead of team Nigeria.

The team, the first women’s bobsled team from Jamaica to compete at the Winter Games, for their part took to Twitter to thank fans and supporters!

“It has been an incredible journey,” they tweeted Wednesday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Red Stripe, which stepped up at the last minute and bought the team a $50,000 sled to compete, tweeted that the team has made the company, Jamaica & the world proud.

“Now, it’s time for a beer,” they added.

On Tuesday’s opening day of action, Jamaica finished their first run in 51.29 seconds and landed in 17th place, three from the bottom and then ended their second run in 51.50 seconds, which placed them 19th, one from the bottom.

The Jamaican failed to make any impact in the overall standing during their last two runs on Wednesday, finishing the third run in 51.83 seconds and landed in 19th place and the fourth run in 51.32 seconds for 13th place.

Those four times landed the Jamaicans 19th of the 20 competitors with a cumulative time of three minutes 25.94 seconds. They beat last-place Nigeria by three minutes 29.60 seconds.

Germany’s Mariama Jamanka and Lisa Buckwitz won the gold.

They set a time of 3 minutes, 22.45 seconds to take top spot ahead of the USA’s (Elana Meyers Taylor, Lauren Gibbs – 3:22.52) and Canada’s (Kaillie Humphries, Phylicia George – 2:22.89).

]]>Oxfam Haiti Director Liked Lesbian Shows Says Former Loverhttp://www.puertoricotribune.com/oxfam-haiti-director-liked-lesbian-shows-says-former-lover/
Thu, 22 Feb 2018 00:00:38 +0000http://www.puertoricotribune.com/oxfam-haiti-director-liked-lesbian-shows-says-former-lover/News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Thurs. Feb. 22, 2018: A teenage lover of the former Haiti director of UK charitable organization, Oxfam, says he liked lesbian shows and would pick up young women in Pétion-Ville and take them back to his villa.

Mikelange Gabou, who was 16 when she started a sexual relationship with Roland van Hauwermeiren, the charity’s director for Haiti who resigned in late 2011, told the Times of London that van Hauwermeiren “liked playing music and also he liked a lot of shows … women with women. Lesbian shows.”

Van Hauwermeiren, then 61, met Gabou, a teenage mother, as she peddled spaghetti, milk and other things in the streets of Haiti, The Times report said.

Gabou said van Hauwermeiren helped her a lot, giving her money and he did that for other girls as well. She, however, denied that the girls he picked up were prostitutes.

“He used to help me but he had a lot of girls, and they used to arrive in pairs. It might be that he had sex with them and promised to find them a job, or sometimes he gave money or didn’t give them money. They were not sex workers. The situation obliged them,” she was quoted as saying.

Oxfam Apology To Haiti’s Government

The latest revelation comes as Oxfam officials apologized officially for the first time this week to Haiti’s government; more than a week after the sexual misconduct scandal report broke.

“We’ve communicated that to the minister and we’ve given as best we can explanations as to what happened in 2011,” Simon Ticehurst, Oxfam’s regional director, told reporters on Monday, after meeting Aviol Fleurant, Haiti’s minister of planning and external cooperation.

According to a 2011 internal probe by Oxfam, also released on Monday, seven employees left the organization as a result of the investigation. Four staff members were fired, and three others, including van Hauwermeiren, were allowed to resign over the allegations, the report revealed. The internal inquiry also said that a witness during the investigation may have been physically threatened by three of the men suspected of abuse.

“Oxfam admits the use of prostitutes by their staff in 2011, they admitted with all the evidence,” Fleurant said. “They even used their offices for such activities. Now we are working to see if there was a cover-up, because their report never made it to the Haitian authorities.”